Having trouble choosing my next 35mm camera.

[tori_c]

<p>Hello! I'm currently a first year college student majoring in photography. I have been shooting 35mm for a little over a year now with a Minolta X-700. Now that I feel I am getting the hang of things, I am a little unsatisfied with this camera. I'd like to purchase a new 35mm within the $100 price range. A sturdy camera with sharp lenses. I mostly shoot landscape and street photography. I've been looking at medium format cameras too but feel I should continue shooting on 35mm a little longer. (And I know that most medium formats and TLRs are a little out of my price range right now.) I'd also like to make the switch to digital somewhere down the line. Any suggestions would be really appreciated. Thank you so much!</p>

[SCL]

<p>What is it about the X-700 you don't like? The range of excellent Rokkor lenses is pretty extensive and the camera you have is also excellent....if you've only been using it for a year, you have barely touched its capabilities.</p>

[rajmohan.]

<p>Hi Tori,<br>

I second Stephen's comment. The X-700 and the Minolta lenses are wonderful photographic (and learning) tools.<br>

If you still want to change, I suppose you'll need to think about what it is that you want in a different camera that is lacking in the X700. The choices are so vast (even within your budget). Factors that might come into play include size, weight, technology/era (purely mechanical/manual vs all auto and everything in between), format (SLR vs rangefinder vs compact etc), negative size (if you want to go down the TLR route, it is possible to do so in the realm of your budget) etc etc.<br>

What lenses are you using at the moment? Perhaps adding a Rokkor lens of a different focal length while continuing to work with the X700 body might be a simpler option (and perhaps even one that challenges you) as you evolve as a photographer. I think it is a lot easier to know what you want after a decent bit of experience.</p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Your best deals are in the film cameras whose lens mounts were orphaned in the "autofocus transition". That's because the lenses are generally very affordable. (A camera is a box, the lens is what counts.) <br>

Most notable would be Minolta, Canon, and Olympus.<br>

So you could go back to a Minolta SRT-101, for instance. Although it wants mercury batteries that are no longer made. You really want to favor cameras that use A76 to S76 batteries, avoid those using 625 or 675 batteries.<br>

Or a Canon FTBn, if you want a "metal" camera, or a T-90, if you want a "plastic electronic" camera.<br>

The Olympus OM-series cameras have fantastic finders, very bright, high magnification.<br>

Problem is that at $100, you're taking a gamble on the camera working right. You're very likely to have to replace the light seals, but that's a practical do-it-yourself project.<br>

Another strategy is K-mount cameras and lenses. There are more lenses in that mount than any other. The Pentax MX is a very solid camera with a great finder, but hard to find for $100. The Pentax K-1000 is overpriced for what it is. The more capable KM is cheaper. But these are not an orphaned lens mount, so the better lenses are pricey.</p>

[tori_c]

<p>Thank you both, and I do see your point! I've been shooting with the prime lens. 50mm f/1.7<br>

Experimenting with another lens is something I've considered - perhaps I should do this first. Any particular lenses you would recommend for landscape and street?</p>

[rajmohan.]

<p>Lens focal lengths are often very personal choices depending on your individual shooting style. If you have an opportunity to borrow lenses of different focal lengths to try, that might help your choice. I'll offer a couple of suggestions based on how I shoot - but bear in mind that this may not suit the way you like to work. I generally use primes.<br /> For street/walkaround stuff, I like to use a 50mm or sometimes a 35mm - I'm not an in-your-face street shooter, so the 50 allows me to stay a little further from subjects' personal space. The 35 is great for scenes/environmental details. Others prefer wider lenses such as a 28, but this is too wide for me.<br /> For landscapes, it's a little more difficult. I tend to switch between ultrawide (20-24mm), wide (28-35mm) or telephoto (90-200mm), depending on the scene.<br /> If you know Sam Abell, a wonderful photographer who also used to work for NatGeo, he only carried 2 lenses for most of his work, a 28mm for the wide stuff and a 90mm when he needed more reach.</p>

[Matthew Currie]

<p>Remember that the X700 can easily use older MC lenses too, some of which are good and cheap, with the emphasis on both those qualifiers. They just won't work right on P mode, but still work fully and meter correctly in M and A modes. There also were lots of third party lenses, some lousy but some good. There's a lot of room to play around and find something you like. Among my favorite Minolta lenses (other than the early MD 1.7 which I think is superb), are the old MC 135/2.8 and the Vivitar Series 1 70-210 F 3.5 Macro zoom. That latter shows up sometimes for very small money, and it's a very handy one.</p>

<p>If you're sticking with film SLR's I'd stay with the Minolta unless you find a bargain camera with a ready-made cache of good lenses. </p>

[brett_rogers]

<p>The f/1.7 isn't a bad performer. I don't use mine often as I have a few 50 or 58mm f/1.4s, but if I didn't, it would be on my SRTs most of the time. If you think it's not sharp enough then, you have a bad sample, your camera body is out of adjustment (mirror height, etc.) or your technique needs to improve. Any are possible but the odds favour the latter. My first love gear wise is definitely the great German classic lens and camera makers so I do not consider myself to be a Minolta "fan boy". However I do own and use some Minolta kit on a regular basis and I can assure you that their lenses are not lacking in quality. Minolta used to run their own glass foundry and make their own raw glass for their lens manufacturing operations. Not many makers went to that much trouble to exercise total control over every aspect of optical quality. They actually made some lenses and cameras for Leica for a while. The X-700 would not be my first choice of Minolta body to pair with their lenses, as I prefer more "classic" all mechanical models, but as others have said, this won't prevent you from making quality images with it if you are using it effectively.</p>

[SCL]

<p>If all you've used is the 50/1.7 you're missing out on some of the fun of using different focal length lenses for different purposes. My Minolta "stable" presently consists of 5 Rokkor lenses (I just sold my 55/1.7 earlier this week); 28/2.8, 45/2.0 pancake, 50/1.5, 50/3.5 macro and a 135/2.8, I have some by other manufacturers in different focal lengths which I also can use on my body. The pancake is sort of a cult lens, great for street work due to its diminutive size, the 28 I like for landscape work, the others sort of speak for themselves. Why not stick with what you have and augment it with a different focal length for a change of pace. While there are several good resources on Minolta Rokkor lenses, an informative easy read is here: http://satnam.ca/cameras/minoltaxe/reviews/reviews.html</p>

[Andy Collins]

<p>If you're interested in a great Minolta zoom lens, try the Minolta MD 28-85mm zoom. It's a pretty impressive performer and it covers a very useful focal range. I have mine mounted on my XD11 and it stays on much of the time.</p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>From a feature standpoint many Minolta users considered the X-700 as top of the line. A couple of points, though: it is totally battery dependent and the build quality, though adequate, is not up to the standards of the older SR, SRT, XE, and XD models. If you want all manual control a Minolta SRT 102 would serve nicely. For aperture priority plus manual consider the XE series. Multi-mode automatic is one of the XD series advantages. And there are lots of bargains to be had in high quality Minolta Rokkor lenses. Inexpensive adapters allow the use of screw mount (M42) Pentax lenses as well.<br>

The Minolta 28-85 is one of Minolta's best zooms as is the 35-135 (both of which I have and use.)<br>

In the tele range the Minolta 70=210 f 4 is a great choice. At the other extreme the 24-50 is good as well.</p>

[Rob_the_waste]

<p>If you're looking into TLR's, you might want to check out the old Yashicas. They're decent quality and you can get deals on them in your price range. I have and still use a Yashica A with a 3.5/80 Yashimar. Since I fixed the light leak, it hasn't let me down. In this case, the light leak wasn't the light seal on the film gate, but rather the tripod hole was completely uncovered. A piece of electrical tape fixed that.</p>

[tori_c]

<p>Thank you all so much for your insight (and incredibly thorough responses!) I think I'm going to try either a 28-85 or 24-50 to begin with. </p>

[Argenticien]

<p>Tori, I'd concur on staying with Minolta, both on its merits and in order to preserve your existing investment. I was for a long time a moderate Pentax fanboy, but have increasingly converted to Minolta. Buy into whatever lenses satisfy your need for automation. I go for the MC ones, which can do open-aperture metering but not shutter priority. For that added automation (shutter priority), you need the MD ones, which may cost a bit more. If you are comfortable with <em>less </em>automation than the MC, you could get the very old plain (non-MC) Rokkors and they might be a bit cheaper. All the glass, though, is pretty affordable, other than the ones that are very fast for their focal length (50/1.2, 35/1.8, 85/1.7, 100/2). And you don't <em>need</em> those; you <em>want </em>them. :)<br>

<em>--Dave</em></p>

[andylynn]

<p>I miss having a good enthusiast-focused film lab nearby. When that closed was when I stopped shooting my Minoltas. If you're looking for some gear suggestions - the X700 is great and there isn't really anything you can't do with it, but for sheer brilliant design and nostalgia value the XD11 can't be beat. Best part is, the leatherette has a tendency to shrink and peel, so if you get one you have an excuse to customize it. I have XD11's in brown, green and black. Brown is my favorite.</p>

<p>Minolta lenses: There is something very special about the image rendering of a clean copy of either of the 58mm MC lenses (1.4 or 1.2). If you can afford a 1.2 and the glass has turned yellow, leave it on a windowsill with sun shining on the glass for a week and it will mostly clear up, leaving the lens with a pleasant, subtle warm tone. The 45mm 2.0 is fantastic. There are a few really nice 28mm 2.8 versions. The 100mm 2.5 is one of the best portrait lenses I've ever used. The 200mm 4.0 (I forget which version is the best one optically) is surprisingly good although difficult to get a sharp shot without a tripod. There are also some really nice 3rd party options - certain versions of the Vivitar Series 1 70-210 and the 28-90, for example.</p>

[mwmcbroom]

<p>Tori, I have the solution for you. Since you're already familiar with the X-700, you need not move far to get a camera that ends up being much more capable fo somebody like you -- a student, where you'll often be working in manual mode. It's called the X-570, and you can find clean copies on eBay or KEH in the $50-60 range. Just in case you're not familiar with the X-570, it looks and feels a lot like the X-700, has a very similar control layout, but it has one very important feature that the X-700 lacks.</p>

<p>The biggest problem with the X-700 is that its meter is not fully coupled. It is coupled to the aperture, but not to the shutter speeds. What this means is that the meter readout changes with adjustment to aperture settings, and it shows the shutter speed the camera recommends, but it doesn't show the shutter speed that is actually selected. So this forces the photographer to look away from the viewfinder, adjust the shutter speed if necessary, then recompose and shoot. Now the X-570 -- even though it is the junior camera of the two (no Program mode, for one thing) -- it has a fully coupled meter. LEDs inside the viewfinder indicate both the actual shutter speed and changes in aperture settings, plus there's a direct readout window at the bottom of the viewfinder for aperture values. All you need to do to confirm proper exposure is to bring the two LED values together. It's a very simple method and similar in operation to many all-manual cameras, such as the SRt-series.</p>

<p>Now, by adding an X-570 to your kit, obviously you get to keep all the Minolta mount lenses you already possess. No costly system switching necessary.</p>

<p> </p>

[fran_ois_pottier]

<p>For sheer pleasure of use, I second Andy's suggestion of the XD11.<br>

For a very nice all-purpose zoom, try the MD 35-70. Here is an example...</p>

<div></div>

[mwmcbroom]

<p>I currently own two Minolta cameras -- the aforementioned X-570, which I highly recommend, and a much beloved XD-11. To me, the XD-11 represents the pinnacle of Minolta's achievement with 35mm cameras, or with any cameras, with the possible exception of some of the Autocords. I love its features, its operation and its smoothness. I found a Winder D for mine, which makes it even more fun to use.</p>

<p>But! Like the X-700, it's meter is not fully coupled. The meter responds to the aperture selected, but it does not let you know the shutter speed you've selected if you're shooting in manual mode. It shows only that which is recommended, which forces the photographer to look away from the viewfinder and visually check the shutter speed selected and adjust as necessary. I don't understand why Minolta decided to handicap the XD-11 in this way, especially with the XD-11 coming into existence following the outstanding run of the SRt series with their fully coupled meters.</p>

<p>Oh, and by the way, the Motor Drive MD-1 shown above will also work with the X-570.</p>

<p>Here's an excellent page explaining the differences and advantages of the X-570 in comparison to the X-700:<br>

http://www.rokkorfiles.com/X-570.htm</p>

<p> </p>

[mwmcbroom]

<p>Wow, Les, thanks for that info! I wear glasses, so it's somewhat difficult for me to see around the perimeter of the viewfinder window, but I took a look, and sure enough, there's a shutter speed readout. I find that I have to get my eye centered just right to see it, though. No wonder I've missed it. Besides, I haven't owned the camera for very long, so I'm still getting used to it. Having the shutter speed readout changes everything, though. So obviously I take back what I wrote about having to look away from the VF. But still, I wish Minolta would have coupled the shutter speed dial to the meter. And in that respect, I still consider the X-570's full-information display to be superior.</p>

[nikono_nikono]

<p>Get a Minolta Maxxum 7000. It's cheap enough with 50mm AF f1.7 lens. A good flash for it runs $20 more. There's a hack posted in some forum to convert the MD 50mm f1.4 to fit MA mount.<br /> The Maxxum can go full manual, full program, A, S modes, can be set to manual focus or autofocus at your choosing. One great new feature of the Maxxum is that you can buy a $12 M42-MA adapter with focus confirm to mount any M42 lens on the Maxxum. Pentax M42 lenses are excellent at reasonable price. Russian Helios prime lenses are very sharp with M42 mount.<br /> However, one missing feature on the Maxxum is the film advance lever. It's good and bad depending on how you see it. Auto film advance guarantees that you won't miss a shot if you ever forgot to advance the film.</p>